1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the management of field replaceable units (FRUs) mounted within a frame structure such as a rack or cabinet and, more specifically, to systems and methods that bring the enhanced availability and serviceability of blade or chassis-based computing systems into rack-based computing systems.
2. Relevant Background
There has been significant progress made in recent years in using Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) for “out of band” (OOB) management (e.g., presence detection such as FRU discovery, inventory audit, activation such as power-cycle and CPU reset, etc.) in both rack mounted server (RMS) and blade compute systems. IPMI is an industry standard, computer system technology providing an architecture or protocol that facilitates communication between a system controller or manager (e.g., including management software) and one or more unique devices being managed (e.g., one or more FRUs).
Computing cabinets or racks are standardized frames that are designed to hold a plurality of FRUs or related components (e.g., rack-mounted servers, power distribution units or backup devices, and/or the like). Generally, a computing rack includes a number of vertical rails or posts (e.g., two, four) to which horizontal members and rail assemblies can be secured to define a plurality of receiving bays for receiving FRUs. Various types and sizes of FRUs may be installed within a rack system and often have standardized heights as multiples of one rack unit (U). For instance, industry standard rack systems often come in heights of 18U, 22U, 36U, 42U, and the like. In high availability environments (e.g., telecommunications systems), the set of FRUs (e.g., computing devices, related components, and the like) in a frame configuration are administered as a single compute system that is functionally consistent with administration of a single FRU.
More recently, FRUs such as blade servers are being used that are typically installed within a compartment or structure referred to as a “blade enclosure” or chassis (e.g., where the blade servers and enclosure are collectively called a “blade system”). The blade enclosure includes a midplane into which all of the blade servers are interconnected and provides many non-core computing services to installed blade servers such as power, cooling, interconnects, management, and the like. That is, the installed blade servers collectively share such non-core computing services provided by the blade enclosure. For instance, a blade enclosure may have a system controller or manager including any appropriate control software or logic that functions to intelligently adjust liquid cooling systems to meet the cooling requirements of the blade servers. Also, the system controller facilitates the ability to “hot-swap” blades within the enclosure (i.e., the ability to add, remove and replace units at need without having to power-off the enclosure). The Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA) is an open industry standard including a series of specifications targeted to requirements for blades and chasses (e.g., in relation to form factors and the like).